and moral order which he predicates of the United Kingdom; why some evident tokens of Divine displeasure have not shown that the English Reformation was a sin. The Abbé Roca is exactly in accord with him in that, while he extols the religious and moral condition of the United States as incomparably superior to anything he knows of in Latin Europe (without stating that the Irish Roman Catholic element is the one lamentable exception, being corrupt, turbulent, and criminal to a degree which makes it the curse of every American city where it is powerful), he yet suggests that they should imperil their prosperity by submitting to the very yoke which has proved such a curse to France, to Italy, and to Spain. It is just because England has cut herself adrift from the Pope and all his works that she has escaped the fate which has fallen on the lands of Vaticanism.

What both Roca and Curci fail to see, or at any rate to say, is that their programme of administrative reform, unattended by any doctrinal reform, is futile. There have been many partial reforms of discipline, many careful cleansings of the outside of the cup and platter, made in the Roman Church, and notably at Trent; but there never has been any withdrawal of a doctrinal issue to which Rome has once formally committed itself, whatever the practical working of the particular tenet may have been. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.' 'Of course,' is the Ultramontane reply, 'for the Church, being infallible, could not have taught or even tolerated theological error, and thus there is nothing which can be taken back, for it is all Divine truth.' We are not going to argue that question here and now, but simply to point out that both Roca and Curci, in declaring war against the Vatican and the Curia, have forgotten Napoleon's aphorism, 'You can't make omelettes without breaking eggs.' If the Pope be really the Divinely chartered head of Christendom, if he be the privileged heir of S. Peter, uniting in himself the offices of sovereign ruler and infallible teacher of the Church, with direct jurisdiction in every part of the Christian world, and with indefeasible rights over even those Christians who refuse to acknowledge his authority, it is his foremost duty not to let these vast powers, entailing forced by crime, which have been rife in Ireland of late years, and the timorous acquiescence of another section, which is afraid to protest openly; only a few exceptional instances being found where the convictions are healthy, and there is courage to act upon them in opposition to the popular current, though that current is 'an outrage on the fundamental principles of morality, and a negation of the dogmas of Christianity.'

He must use But since he is

such tremendous responsibilities, lie dormant. them, and not let them lie folded in a napkin. not omniscient and omnipresent, since no single human being, however gifted and energetic, could get through one-hundredth part of the labour involved, it is a necessity that he should have the assistance of a numerous and highly organized staff of a permanent character, which must not only do the whole routine work required, but practically take cognizance of all save a very few of the most important matters referred to Rome for arbitration. And as the problem of disentangling civil from religious questions has proved, and must prove, insoluble, the authority which claims to be supreme in the domain of faith and morals must necessarily interfere in all political debates where faith and morals are concerned, and must exercise its diplomatic influence through trained and accredited agents; while it follows, from the constant operation of the laws of human nature, that the executive of such an organization as is necessitated by the conditions of the case will think and act as members of similar close corporations have acted since the dawn of history. That is to say: Destroy the Curia to-morrow, and start fair, leaving the doctrine of the Petrine claims untouched, and the Curia must needs begin to be reconstituted the day after, soon to be precisely what it is now.

The fact is that principles always work themselves out in the long run, however slow the process may be; and every practical abuse, every moral delinquency, of which the Roman Catholic writers we have cited accuse the Vatican, is the natural fruit of erroneous theological dogma. The hysterical effeminacy they complain of is directly traceable to substituting the Blessed Virgin, practically regarded as a woman more soft than just, and as peculiarily open to flattery, for the Man-God, the ideal of strength, wisdom, and justice, as well as of purity, tenderness, and mercy. The childish devotions and manuals which draw down F. Curci's censure are the outcome of the use of a dead language in the chief public offices; the Vatican itself is the inevitable corollary of the Petrine legend. Every palliative which has been applied in the course of ages has been merely like those medicines which drive an eruption inwards without touching the disease of which it is only the symptom; and the spots are sure to crop out again when the temporary remedy has spent its force. Only a thorough doctrinal reform can arrest the disintegration and decay to which the writers we have cited bear testimony. And the path to that is blocked by the Vatican decrees and the Infallibility dogma, which forbid any confession of error. What shall be the end thereof?

ART. VIII. BISHOP WORDSWORTH'S EPISCOPATE,

1869-1885.

1. Miscellanies, Literary and Religious. By CHR. WORDSWORTH, D.D., Bishop of Lincoln. (London, 1879.)

2. Conjectural Emendations of Passages in Ancient Authors, with other Papers. By CHR. WORDSWORTH, D.D., Bishop of Lincoln. (London, 1883.)

3. Triennial Addresses delivered at the Visitation of the Diocese of Lincoln. Fifth series. By CHR. WORDSWORTH, D.D., Bishop of Lincoln. (Lincoln, 1882.)

ON December 12, 1884, within a month of the termination of the honoured episcopate' of Archbishop Trench, under whom he had worked so long as Canon of Westminster, Bishop Christopher Wordsworth announced his intention of resigning the Bishopric of Lincoln, an intention which with characteristic promptitude was carried into effect at the end of January of the present year. To both Prelates a tribute as eloquent as it is well deserved was given from the pulpit of the abbey in which they had worshipped for so long together and borne witness so unflinchingly to the truth:

'They have been,' said Canon Furse, associates of literary men, have run the gauntlet of the acutest criticism, in days when controversy has ground the steel of subtle judgment to the sharpest edge; they have been students, poets, scholars, Biblical critics and interpreters, and after long retirement, which made their acquaintances dubious of their success, they were translated from this abbey to scenes where they were called from their books to manage men, and to express their convictions, and prove their theories in the roughest friction with practical politics.'

To Archbishop Trench's work grateful reference has already been made in our pages. To some aspects of the contemporary episcopate of Bishop Wordsworth we desire now to refer, and the more so because we feel that it suggests lessons which have not been as yet drawn out with the fulness which their importance deserves. In the works placed at the head of this article many different subjects are discussed, with all the dignity and grace, the fresh enthusiasm and matured wisdom, associated for so long by intelligent and believing Churchmen with the name of Bishop Wordsworth. Their

1 Church Quarterly Review, No. 38, pp. 475-77.

moral value is as large as their intellectual, for, to quote from an article which appeared in the Yorkshire Post, Whatever may be the subject on which he dilates, we know and feel that he is at work to leave the world better than he found it, and that the power of religion is in his heart.'

In proposing the resolution in which the Upper House of the Convocation of Canterbury expressed its regard for the Bishop of Lincoln, the Bishop of Winchester spoke of the 'many advantages' under which Bishop Wordsworth had begun life. The son of a very distinguished man and the nephew of a great poet, he was educated at the great public school which was founded by one of the most eminent of my predecessors, the great Bishop of Winchester. He went from that most ancient public school to the still more distinguished College of Trinity, at Cambridge.' Modern fashions notwithstanding, we think that no one who has traced the course of Bishop Wordsworth and the distinguished men who have been his contemporaries, whether in Church or State, will deny that older methods of training have a good deal to say for themselves, and no one has felt their value more strongly than the subject of this notice.

'Great,' he wrote, ' are the advantages enjoyed by candidates for Holy Orders in these ancient seminaries of sound learning, in the ennobling memories of a glorious past, and of an illustrious, spiritual, and intellectual ancestry, and in social intercourse of liberal studies and manly sports with students in the middle and higher ranks of society destined for other professions. Manifold are the benefits of training in classical and mathematical discipline and learning, and in other pursuits which give a dignity and strength, a breadth and depth, a refinement and tact, a frankness and generosity to the character of many an English clergyman nurtured in our English Universities."1

Testimony not less generous was borne in two sermons entitled, 'The Hope of Glory and the Future of our Universities,' in which with words remarkable alike for their strength and pathos the Bishop encouraged his hearers not to relax their efforts, however sweeping the changes then imminent might be, for 'men may abrogate our statutes, but they cannot cancel our history; it is stereotyped for ever.'

In after years the Bishop has been wont to remind his. Diocese 'that there can be no such thing as sound theology without accurate philology,' and what was enforced by precept had certainly been first suggested by example. A smile must have hung about the lips of many at the Church Congress

1 Triennial Addresses, p. 75.

held at Derby in 1882, as they heard the keen, incisive paper 'On the Controversy with Rome,' prefaced by the unexpected confession that 'about fifty years ago' Dr. Milner's End of Controversy had made an impression' upon the venerable speaker 'which he should never forget;' but few, perhaps, reflected how the classical training followed by the really adventurous travels described with so much grace and humour in the first volume of the Miscellanies 1 had trained the mind and will which now, with ripened wisdom, was strengthening their attachment to the Church of England, and enabling not a few, perhaps for the first time, 'to give some reasons for that attachment.'

1

To these earlier studies the Bishop has been ever faithful, and in the Collection of Specimens of Conjectural Emendations on some Passages in Ancient Authors he has only lately given us specimens of his power. 'That antiquarian pursuits are not altogether fruitless and vain' is shown in the beautiful peroration which closes the paper 'Where was Dodona?' delivered at the Lincoln Diocesan Architectural and Archæological Society's meeting at Spalding in June 1882, and in the delightful address which those who heard it will not have forgotten, in which the members of the Royal Archæological Institute at the annual meeting held at Lincoln in 1880, were welcomed 'to our own archæological Olympia.'

But the Bishop was prepared for his episcopate by action as well as study: for in theological study he never forgot the duties of a priest and pastor. His experience had been, though it may surprise our readers to hear it, even larger than that enjoyed by Bishop Wilberforce. He had been for eight years Head-master of Harrow. For nearly a quarter of a century he had held a Canonry at Westminster, residing, by ‘a remarkable coincidence,' in the house adjoining the chapel of S. Catherine, in which S. Hugh was consecrated Bishop of Lincoln on September 21, 1186, being S. Matthew's Day.' To the Canonry had been more recently (1865-1869) added the Archdeaconry of Westminster. As Vicar of Stanford-in-the-Vale (18501869) and Rural Dean in the Diocese of Oxford the future bishop had become acquainted with all the difficulties, temptations, and encouragements of a country cure. While in residence he had taught daily in the Parochial School, and twice in each week the children were catechized in church. The result was that 'three per cent. of the population were confirmed annually,' although, as its pastor 'knew from

1 Pp. 1-66.